post-expo thoughts on expo, with expo brain

I am five days “recovered” from the specialty coffee trade show World of Coffee in San Diego (formerly known as Expo). For the last four days, I’ve slept in with no alarm, and each time I’ve woken up, I’ve thought, yeah, I should definitely take the day off on Friday. Reader, I did not take Friday off, but I am hopeful that I'll leave early.

I didn’t talk to as many people as I normally do at these events, and I also went straight into photographing another event on Monday. My legs and feet hate me. I was lying on my side, chatting with my best friend, sat up, and instantly got a pinched nerve or muscle where the quads attach to the top. I had just enough adrenaline left in my reserves to get me through editing all the galleries due this week.

This was one of my more favorite expos, largely because I had a lot more free time than usual. Yet somehow, I still didn’t get to see a number of my friends, but that’s how these things go.

The headshot mini-sessions were a great success! I filled all eight slots; some people were done in less than five minutes, so I also had a bonus ninth for a friend between sessions. It helped a lot that the convention center was beautiful—dramatic structures in arches and circles, filled with natural light inside—probably my favorite convention center so far (outside the floor). While I definitely assembled the service last-minute, the idea of doing mini-sessions at the show has been in my head for two years. I'm proud I was able to launch and execute it, especially since it was my first time doing any sort of mini-session. Interacting with and photographing people is far less tiresome than talking to loads of strangers. Plus, we were outside in the gorgeous San Diego weather, and if you know, you know that it can be hard to leave the floor in the middle of the show. For the first time in my history of attending this show, I left the building to eat lunch at a cafe and arrived at 11:30 am another day. Unprecedented. Abnormal. I will absolutely be doing headshot minis in New Orleans!

WoC is overwhelming, full stop. When I started going to it in 2014 (? what is time?), when SCA was SCAA, I want to say the attendee size was around 10k or less, but now it’s more like 15k with a roasters village, maybe double the floor size, and has far more unfamiliar faces than I’m used to. There were also some pretty cool products that caught my eye; more on that later, after I've decompressed. What has always been my favorite feature is the serendipitous run-ins you have—at a cafe, at a party, on the street, and even in the bathroom.